Linux Tips #18



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*1. THE KDBG GRAPHICAL DEBUGGER INTERFACE                 
        
KDbg is a graphical debugger interface to the GNU gdb debugger. It 
requires the KDE runtime libraries. Major features of KDbg include 
inspection of variable values in a concise tree structure, debugging 
of core dumps, attaching to running processes, conditional 
breakpoints, and function keys for frequent debugging commands. KDbg 
supports C and C++ and is an Open Source product. KDbg is available at 

http://members.telecom.at/~johsixt/kdbg.html


*2. IMPLEMENTING A DEVICE DRIVER AS A SHARED LIBRARY                 
        
In addition to statically linked kernel device drivers and loadable 
kernel modules, you can implement a device driver as a shared library. 
This is useful when the driver has specific timing requirements or 
privileges.


*3. THE LINUXONE DISTRIBUTION                 
        
LinuxOne Lite is a simplified version of Linux that has been 
especially crafted for first-time users. It is targeted at curious PC 
enthusiasts, educators, and students who are looking for a Linux 
version that is easy to set up and use. For example, unlike other 
distributions, LinuxOne Lite doesn't require that users know how to 
partition their hard disk. For further info and a free download, see: 

http://www.linuxone.net


*4. PSEUDO CHARACTERS IN NCURSES                 
        
Ncurses is an Open Source implementation of the traditional UNIX 
curses library. It provides a uniform, simple, and high-level 
interface for controlling the screen and capturing mouse and keyboard 
input. Ncurses beginners should notice that many of the library's 
functions take parameters of the type "chtype", rather than plain 
char. Such a character is also called a "pseudo character" because it 
is represented as an unsigned long integer, in which the low order 
eight bits hold the original character and the higher order bits carry 
additional information, such as video attributes.


*5. THE TINY COBOL PROJECT                 
        
The tiny COBOL project attempts to develop an open source COBOL 
compiler for Linux that is as close as possible to the COBOL-74 ANSI 
standard. For more information about this project, visit: 

http://tiny-cobol.sourceforge.net/index.html


*6. DEFINING AN ALIAS                 
        
To avoid typing a long command that you use frequently, define an 
alias for it. For example, the following line: 

$ alias chkcode = 'gcc --fsynatx-only  test.cxx' 

defines an alias chkcode, which is synonymous with the long-winded 
"gcc --fsynatx-only  test.cxx" command.


*7. ADDING SHORTCUTS TO YOUR .PROFILE FILE                 
        
The bash command shell automatically executes the .profile file that 
is located in the user's default directory upon log in (.profile is 
similar to the autoexec.bat file in DOS). You can add aliases, 
environment variables, and hard links to your .profile file so that 
they remain defined permanently.


*8. THE KERNEL JOURNAL                 
        
The Kernel Journal tracks announcements that are posted on the 
Linux-kernel mailing list, which is the primary forum for Linux kernel 
development. The Kernel Journal lists projects in order of the date of 
their most recent announcement; it briefly describes the project and 
its history of announcements, and it provides a URL from which the 
source files of that project can be downloaded. The Kernel Journal 
page can be found at: 

http://www.linuxcare.com/developers/kernel/


*9. SWAPPING A RUNNING TASK FROM THE FOREGROUND INTO THE BACKGROUND                 
        
Suppose you've just started to run a long process (a compilation of a 
huge program, for example) and you forgot to append an ampersand to 
that command. The task will run in the foreground, which means that 
you cannot type other commands in the shell prompt until that task 
finishes. You don't have to abort that task or wait for it to finish. 
Simply redirect the running task to the background as follows: press 
Ctrl-Z, then type 

bg  

(for background), and press Enter. The command prompt will appear 
again, and the task will continue to run in the background.


*10. ABIWORD--A FREE WORD PROCESSOR FOR LINUX                 
        
AbiWord is a cross-platform word processor with a graphical user 
interface that can import Word files. It is available on Linux, UNIX, 
Win32, BeOS, and MacOS. AbiWord is an Open Source product distributed 
under the GNU GPL terms. You can find more info on AbiWord and 
download it from: 

http://www.abisource.com/